Stale-Dated or Lost Warrants

If an employee has not cashed his/her payroll warrant within the allowable period of time noted on the warrant, the warrant is considered stale-dated.

When presented for deposit, the financial institution will reject a stale-dated warrant. To receive payment for these non-negotiable checks, employees must request in writing that the check be reissued.

Re-issuing a Stale-Dated Warrant

The employee requesting a reissue of a stale-dated warrant must contact Employee Services and submit his/her request in writing. He/she should provide the specific pay day of the stale-dated warrant, net dollar amount, his/her name, and employee ID or Social Security number. If this warrant is in the employee's possession, the employee must surrender the stale-dated warrant to Employee Services.

After confirming the warrant has not been previously cashed (for cases when the stale-dated warrant is not surrendered) or reissued, Employee Services will process a replacement.

Employee Services periodically notifies employees of stale-dated checks that are still outstanding via letters sent to the employees' last known addresses. These employees may sign and return these notifications, which then become authorized requests for Employee Services to reissue the check.

Re-issuing Lost Warrants

Employees may lose warrants, or they may be lost in mail delivery. Employees must allow 10 business days after payday for the check to be delivered via U.S. mail. If after 10 business days the employee determines that the check needs to be re-issued, please follow the procedures below:

The employee should contact his/her department payroll liaison to request a stop pay and hand-drawn replacement.

Departments should submit a Hand-Drawn Warrant Request Form to Employee Services, indicating "lost warrant" as the reason for the request. See HandDrawn Warrants [1]for more information.

Employee Services will determine if the original warrant was returned due to an incorrect address. If it was, a payroll counselor will contact the department payroll liaison to request an update to the employee mailing address in the HRMS. After the address is corrected, the original warrant will be mailed to the new address, or arrangements can be made for the employee to pick up the check at Employee Services offices.

If the original warrant was not returned, Employee Services will place a stop payment on the original warrant after verifying the check had not been cashed.

Should the missing warrant arrive in the mail after the stop pay/replacement has already been requested, the employee must surrender the warrant to Employee Services. Attempting to cash it at this point will result in a rejected bank deposit item; resulting bank service charges to the employee will become the employee’s responsibility.

Note: All employees are required to participate in the direct deposit program. For more information, see the Direct Deposit page[2].